Seijūrō Shin (進 清十郎, Shin Seijūrō) is one of the star players of the Ojo White Knights, and the ace of the team. Playing the defensive position of linebacker, he is known for his strength, speed, and his famous Spear Tackle. Although later on in the series he also plays offense as a fullback.

He is the most prominent rival of the series' main character, Sena Kobayakawa.

Contents

Characteristics

Shin is considered the strongest and fastest linebacker in the history of Japan. His signature move is the Spear Tackle, a powerful one-arm thrust that can stop any opponent, and later, agonizing players so much that they refuse to touch the ball ever again.

He is one of the few characters who figured out that Sena was Eyeshield 21 right away. He does consider Eyeshield 21 as a formidable opponent, as he admitted during the interview before the Kanto Elimination Rounds. This is because Sena is able to achieve the legendary Speed Of Light pace (40 yards in 4.2 seconds), and was the one person who actually beat him and his Spear Tackle outright with pure speed (no cuts-moves, etc.). It was through this experience that Shin was driven to improve on his running as well as his strength. He's very good at analyzing a person's moves and how to react accordingly to stop him.

Shin somewhat resembles Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, which is used humorously in the manga to show Sena's fear of Shin (as a delusion - it's suggested that "Delusion Shin" can probably use "Hokuto-shinken" as well). Yusuke Murata, the series' artist, described that Shin is "modeled after Bruce Lee and is a cool, handsome character."

Shin's mind is constantly on his physical conditioning. While the Deimon Devil Bats are celebrating their first victory in the Fall Tournament, they meet up with the White Knights part-way at a buffet restaurant. Even then, Shin uses the hoarding on the restaurant, which is a model of a bull's head (horns and all) to exercise on, by doing one-handed chin-ups. Whenever their team loses or when he felt he has played poorly, he inflicts self-punishment on himself by doing even more rigorous training.

He is neither prideful nor humble, always taking in things objectively even if it's at the expense of offending someone else. Shin is considered reticent and unapproachable by other people. Because of this he thought nobody cared about him until he joined the football club.

History

Shin and Sena have met previously back in grade school, though unknowingly at the time. In a flashback, Sena is running with Riku as they train to become faster. Sena almost runs into Shin as he is chasing after a car to return a 100 yen piece to a man who had dropped it. After returning the money, Shin briefly notices the small, scrawny Sena who seemed unusually fast. The memory of him seemed to linger in Shin's memory, and drove him on to become faster. The two would not meet again until much later on the football field.

A brief encounter between two future rivals.

Haruto Sakuraba befriended him on their first day at Ojo Middle School since their seats were ordered alphabetically and Sakuraba sat directly in front of him. Shin was with Sakuraba when they happened to pass by the football club recruiting new members. They immediately noticed Sakuraba because of his height and convinced him that he could become a great receiver. While Sakuraba was filling out an application form, another of the seniors asked if Shin wanted to sign up as well. Shin had complied, and then was noticed by Shouji, the White Knights' coach. Shouji told the others players to make sure Shin does not get recruited by other clubs.

Even though he was still a first year, he impressed the senior players when he dominated them in training and practices. Shouji was particularly stern on him. He slapped Shin after he clocked in at 4.62 seconds in his 40 yard dash (the fastest in Ojo) during his first year, explaining he should be at least 4.5 seconds but became too exhausted from the severe beatings he got from the bruiser ring. Shin persevered in the brutal trainings in Ojo and soon became their ace player.

His team and Shinryūji Naga have a well-known, long-standing rivalry but not once have they managed to defeat them. It wasn't until he finally joined the team, a year before the series began, that they came close to winning. Five minutes left into the game Ojo led the game 16-3. Everyone thought it was the end of the Naga dynasty until the Kongo brothers, Agon and Unsui, were subbed in and managed to make two comeback touchdowns. Not much else is known as to what transpired in this match but according to Ikkyu Hosokawa, Shin had Agon riled up during their confrontations and considered him a worthy rival, an experience which would not repeat for Agon until his match with Sena. Later, the lazy Agon showed up to their first game against Deimon just to watch him play and was dismayed to find out that Shin was benched.

Yōichi Hiruma had previously forewarned Shin about bringing to him a running back with the legs of the speed of light called Eyeshield 21 after their practice match against Deimon where they lost 99-0. Shin swore to Hiruma that when that time comes, he would crush Eyeshield 21 with his own strength for which Hiruma later applauded him for being a man who keeps his word.

Synopsis

He makes his first appearance during the Deimon vs. Koigahama Cupids match with Sakuraba. They were assigned by Shouji to scout and film the match as the winner of that match would be their next opponent during the Spring Tournament. Hiruma was not pleased to see them there as he didn't want Shin to find about their secret weapon, Eyeshield 21, since he would definitely create a counterplan against him. With the knowledge that Sakuraba is a famous celebrity, Hiruma uses his cheerleaders to chase after him. In the midst of confusion, Sakuraba hands Shin the videocam and runs off. However, Shin breaks the videocam the moment it was handed to him. He goes after Sakuraba, forgetting the rest of the game.

Shin the walking techbane

Later he and Sakuraba are seen reporting back to the team and showing them the match from their unfinished tape. Shouji berates the pair since they haven't learn anything essential from the tape as Deimon later came back with a touchdown. Shin takes the blame for himself, forcing Shouji to bench him for their match against Deimon as punishment.

Because he wasn't playing, Eyeshield 21 took the opportunity to use his explosive run and get past Ojo's formidable defense. The gap he left on the field placed his team in a state of chaos especially Otawara whose limited number of brain cells caused him to be confused as to whether he should mind his own position or fill in for Shin. Deimon continued to dominate them, scoring the first touchdown while Ojo remained scoreless. Shouji, not wanting to embarrass themselves further in front of Shinryuji who came to watch, puts Shin out early in the game.

His mere presence on the field revived the confidence of his teammates and Deimon's previous series of successful offenses were thwarted by Shin and his Spear Tackle. Eyeshield 21 in particular was the most vulnerable because he always carried the ball and despite being the fastest player on the field early on, Shin proved to be even more faster. In truth, Eyeshield can run even faster than Shin at 4.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash, something which Hiruma did not fail to gloat to Shin. At first Shin refused to fall for Hiruma's taunting but he noticed that Eyeshield became faster and faster after each tackle.

On their last confrontation, Eyeshield finally surpasses him resulting in a second touchdown for Deimon. Shin immediately thought back to Shouji's previous warning about a faster speed that no amount of strength can even touch, the world of the speed of light. Unfortunately, this peak speed causes Eyeshield to collapse and he remained benched until the end of the match. Ojo won 68-12. After the match, Shin informs Eyeshield that Ojo would be one of the teams participating in the Christmas Bowl, hoping to have a rematch with him.

During the summer before the Fall Kantou Tournament, he trains at Mt. Fuji to perfect the 'Ballista' technique. By running on a high altitude, sparsely oxygenated area at day and coming down to practice after, this would increase his cardiopulmonary functions and thus maximize his stamina. However, he gets lost on his first day after destroying the GPS. While lost he encounters a wild boar who attacks him, Shin retaliates by using his Spear Tackle, effectively killing the boar. He becomes hungry and had no choice but to roast the boar but not without lamenting that by just eating the boar cannot provide him the necessary nutrients.

Shin battles a wild boar.

His team conducted a search at nightfall however it is Panther who finds him first after hearing he was spotted at Mt. Fuji and challenges him to a fight. Shin, not understanding English, misinterpreted this as him as asking him to share the boar with him. Sakuraba, Takami, Otawara and Wakana finds them and joins their campfire. After eating, Shin gets ready to train once more, ignoring Takami's objections. Panthers sees this as his chance and runs toward him. Shin shook him off without so much of an effort. He explains to Panther that his running style is too clean since he is capable of seeing all open routes on the field (like Sena). This revelation stirs something within Sakuraba and he decides to follow Shin in his training. Eventually all of the White Knights followed them to Mt. Fuji.

The team improves rapidly during the course of the summer training and once more they become formidable opponents at the Fall Tournament. Ojou placed first at the Tokyo Fall Tournament, making an outstanding record of not letting their opponents score a single touchdown against them even against opponents that previously dominated them at the Spring Tournament such as Seibu Wild Gunmens and Sankaku Punks. At the end of the tournament he is voted as the Most Valuable Player as well as one of Tokyo's Best Eleven in the defensive position as linebacker. For the Kantou elimination tournament, Ojou were selected to compete on Block B, the same block as his rival Eyeshield's team, Deimon Devil Bats.

In the anime, Shin does go up against Sena and his new Devil Bat Ghost maneuver early on. Initially he was shocked that his traditional one-arm Spear Tackle was useless against the Ghost. Sena succeeded in passing him twice. This was a rare moment in which he doubted his own ability. This led him to develop the Twin Spear Technique, using both arms to stop Eyeshield 21. Later on, he witnesses Sena develop the Devil Bat Tornado, causing him to realize that his rival was fast-evolving. He vowed to train even harder for when he and Eyeshield 21 would meet in the final showdown. Unfortunately, unless there is a major twist in the story, this is fated not to happen; Ojo and Deimon were drawn in the same half of the Kantou tournament and, providing they win their quarter-final matchups, would meet in the semi-finals.

Prior to the start of their game against the Sado Strong Golems in the quarterfinals, Shin approaches Riku Kaitani of the Seibu Wild Gunmen, telling him of a combination of the Spear Tackle with his "Rodeo Drive", creating a new technique called the "Trident Tackle". Used to crush Sado easily, the technique is actually preparation for the semi-final opponent: Sena and the Devil Bats!

The Ballista debuts during a practice match of their team with the Oujou Silver Knights, their school's college team that also had the famous Golden Generation. The White Knights won 20-3 without letting their opponent score a single touchdown. On that same day, it also happened to be Oujou's school festival. Hiruma Youichi used this opportunity to investigate the Ballista. Because the match took place in a closed field, Hiruma could only do with reading the score board and deduced that Ballista involves using Shin in their offensive line to cause such point difference. In a true Hiruma-like method, he disguises as the quiz bowl host and blatantly asks the whole White Knights team who were watching to confirm his suspicions. Takami instantly knew that Hiruma was trying to gauge their reactions and refused to give in to his egging by keeping a straight face. However, Shin realized Hiruma was only going this far because all of Deimon's tricks have been revealed in their match against Shinryuuji Naga and pleads with Takami that he wanted a fair fight against their greatest rival in the tournament. Takami eventually concedes and confirms Hiruma's suspicion but at the same time stating his confidence that even with that information there was no way they could beat the reborn Oujou, the strongest one since its establishment. In the anime, Shin is one of the contestants in the quiz bowl with Takami as his partner. He couldn't answer simple questions, which were mostly about Ojou (such as the name of Sakuraba's modelling agency), and humorously perspires in frustration. The only question he answered though was one related to football.

He has total confidence in both Ojo defeating the Devil Bats and his final domination of Sena. His theory seemed set to be put to the test as both players collide during Deimon's opening drive. However, this turned out not to be the case, as his teammate Ikari tackled Eyeshield first. However, as Deimon's first drive continues, Shin immediately realized that the Devil Bats had a distinct advantage over Ojo in terms of ability on the field. With the Devil Bats members playing both offense and defense, and using Seibu's Shotgun Strategy, they went with 100% effort regardless of risk while the Knights only used 99%. He then persuades Sakuruba to join him on defense as he knows that only he could match Raimon Taro in terms of catching.

Though the Knights were able to stop the Devil Bats from scoring the first touchdown of the game, Deimon still took the lead with a field goal. Shin recognized the power and ability of Musashi's kicking leg, but was unable to deflect the ball, due to being blocked by Sena. With the score 0-3 in Deimon's favor, Shin now comes to play on offense. Using the Ballista tactic, the White Knights take the lead 6-3, with a touchdown by Sakaruba, but a failed extra kick attempt. Realizing that Deimon could still score with field goals, Shin and his team must prevent the Devil Bats from scoring any touchdowns.

When the Devil Bats reclaim the ball, Shin surprises everyone by revealing his greatest secret: he has finally reached the "Speed of Light Pace" that only Sena himself had reached. Using the power of his new-found speed and the Trident Tackle, he both catches up and stops Sena's rushing attempt, saying he has finally proven once and for all that he is the better player. At this time, Sena has not found a means to either avoid or surpass Shin, proving that the Ojo player has ultimately become the perfect player of the tournament.

However, Sena finally reveals that he has discovered a means to finally fight back while rushing with the ball: the Devil Stungun, a dagger-like arm jab that blocks any defensive movements from Shin's Trident Tackle and allows him to continue moving down the field. With this ability, Sena appears to finally found a way around his rival...until a subsequent rush towards the end-zone finds Shin using his Speed of Light Pace and a slight grab forcing Deimon to come up short for a touchdown. Subsequently, as the match becomes an offensive duel, Shin becomes the main defensive line supporting Sakuraba in a formation to protect pass receptions and allowing Ojo to remain on top of Deimon with three minutes left in the game. However, his team was unable to stop Deimon from scoring and taking the lead. During the last play of the game, Shin is handed the ball and seemed unstoppable as he approached the goal line in what appears to be certain victory. The plan was to score with no time left on the clock. However, Deimon's weakest player (in terms of strength, skill and stamina) Yukimitsu pushes him through to score before time ran out. With one second on the clock and Deimon receiving one last kickoff, Shin ends up chasing after Sena one last time, with the winner of this final showdown determining the Kanto finalist. In the end, Shin's Trident Tackle was defeated by Sena's combination of the Devil Bat Ghost, Devil Bat Dive and Devil Stungun.

At the end of the Deimon/Ojo game, Shin is elected as the new team captain for the White Knights, and makes a promise to Sena to compete against him again in the following Spring Season. At the end of the game and his final chat with Sena, Shin smiles for the first time in the series.

After the game, it was revealed that he'd become one of the trainers for Deimon's special training for Christmas Bowl, more specifically, the personal trainer of Sena. They trained using the square path, optimizing Sena's skill to do extremely sharp cut without losing his speed and to build his stamina.

Shin is one of the players recruited for Team Japan's participation in the Youth World Cup. He agreed to help Sena and Monta look for other recruits within the Kantou area while Yamato and Taka searched at Kansai. To Sena and Monta's horror, Shin's first suggestion was the fearsome genius Agon Kongo. Thankfully, Agon happened to watch retired NFL player Morgan's announcement on television offering $3 million and an NFL contract to whoever wins MVP in the World Cup, and he volunteers himself before they could ask. The four meet up with Gaou at a crowded fastfood chain. Shin, Agon, and Gaou intimidated the other patrons so much that some of them agreed to leave and give up their seats for them. Shin only ordered water, refusing to eat junk food. It soon became clear that Gaou and Agon could never along when Agon stated he did not want the slow Kurita to play on the team and both resorted to fighting. Shin quickly intervened by stopping them both with an arm each. He later notes that Gaou has so much power it caused his arm pain.

Shin and the rest of the Japanese players are unable to play in their first match against Russia due to Agon, who hid all of their uniforms. Takami, the Ha-Ha brothers, and Onihei, recruited earlier by Agon as part of his scheme to keep the $3 million all to himself, were the only ones with uniforms and played in their place. Shin, Sena, Riku and Yamato, the four fastest people on the team promised to run back to the hotel to retrieve their uniforms. When they came back though, they weren't needed anymore, as Japan lead by a wide margin and eventually won the match.

He might have denied playing for the American colleges to play for Ojo University or played for Ojo University as Jr. college, but he eventually got drafted because of his record and his performance in the world cup. He still got noticed by NFL teams for his performance and abilities, as well as his rivalry with Sena and his stunning performance at the NFL combine. He got invited to the NFL combine because he was on The Japanese National Team, and both teams technically won, since the official result was a draw. The person who got the most MVP votes was going be MVP. To be a good sport the NFL agreed with the world cup to give all of the Japanese players a chance to be NFL players. Once they were ready, they could come to the NFL combine on their own instead of being invited. Quite a few of them made it into the NFL because of this. It propelled Shin to be one of the first LB's drafted in the NFL draft. He became a superstar for his NFL team in his rookie year, a status that he kept for the rest of his long career.

Techniques and strategies

The Pace of The Speed of Sound - Before Shin reaches the Speed of Light, Shin Has the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds. He also known to be the fastest in High School Level before Sena stepped in.

The Pace of The Speed of Light - Shin has the 40-yard dash in 4.2 seconds making him the same speed as Sena, and he is known as one of the Four Fastest in Japan.

Strength - Shin is one of the most powerful High School Footballers. He can lift 140 kg while benchpressing with only his two index fingers, he is shown to be powerful enough to lift up Kurita, and destroy any electronical equipment such as Vending Machines, Laptops, etc. by just touching it.

Spear Tackle - Shin uses a one-arm thrust aimed at his opponent's midsection, which is usually enough to stop him in his tracks. It can stop Sena's normal running tactics, Panther's Zero Gravity Run and Riku's Rodeo Drive, but it proves useless in the anime against the Devil Bat Ghost. During Fall tournament, the strength of his tackle is so devastating that it makes opposition players traumatized, to the point that they refuse to touch the ball ever again.

Twin Spear Tackle - By using both arms in the thrust, Shin is able to counter the Devil Bat Ghost. Shin also uses this on other players to stop them and make them fumble, as seen in the rematch against the Sankaku Punks. Whether it can overcome the Devil Bat Tornado is yet unknown. Twin Trident tackle is when Shin uses both hands and delivers two powerful thrusts which can be turned into grabs. This how he tackled Panther in the final minutes of tournament.

Trident Tackle - In order to counter Sena's light-speed running, Shin asked Riku (Sena's childhood friend, now playing for the Seibu Wild Gunmans) on how to do his Rodeo Drive. By combining this method along with his Spear Tackle, Shin is able to suddenly shoot forward at 120% of his maximum speed during the instant he charges his opponent. This also delivers a more powerful thrust. It has proven effective against Sena's Devil Light Hurricane move by chapter 218, but by chapter 228, Sena seems to have found the weak point. The tackle cannot be stopped head-on, but can be deflected from the side. Sena demonstrates this by using his arms to redirect the momentum of the tackle. It doesn't stop the charge completely, but it delays Shin long enough for Hiruma to avoid being blitzed.

Ballista - the Ballista is a formation that involves putting Shin into offense. This was information that Takami, the Knights' quarterback, offered up freely when Hiruma gatecrashed the Ojo Festival Quiz. When it comes to the first Ojo drive of their game against Deimon, Takami is so confident of the formation's success that he actually tells the Bats which way the play will go - and he doesn't bluff them either. The nature of the Ballista is to use a Spear (Shin's trademark move) to open up a hole for the ball carrier to get through.

Sagittarius - A combination of Sakuraba and Takami's Everest Pass and his own Trident Tackle, Shin becomes Sakuraba's guard allowing him to catch passes while he defends against the opposing defense. The main weaknesses is that Shin's focus can be split and if Takami is targeted, then the play becomes useless.

Speed of Light Pace - After discovering Sena's ability to run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds, Shin trained consistently throughout the year until he finally achieves the ability to do the same during the game against the Devil Bats. By achieving this speed, Shin is able to combine it with his strength to stop even speedy players like Sena.

Trident Light Spear Tackle - Not the confirmed name, but will probobaly be likened to this, it combines the Trident Tackle and the Speed of Light Pace, it defeated the Devil Light Hurricane easily but it was beaten eventually with Sena's One Man Devil Bat Dive.

Double Trident Tackle - He used it to tackle Panther during the World Cup.

Trivia

Although he is always serious when it comes to his training, he is almost at an absolute loss when it comes to technology. He will break any kind of device within one minute of being handed it, since he has no idea of how the device works. So far he's broken a camcorder, a GPS device, an automatic turnstile and later on, a laptop. In the anime, while training on a cruise ship, he pulls on a lever in an attempt to open a door, but instead breaks the lever and cuts off power to the boat for several minutes. In a Jump advertisement for the Eyeshield 21 Nintendo DS game, Shin accidentally breaks the DS he was playing with. However, he uses the stylus to do vertical push-ups.

Although Ootawara always hits him on the back, Shin never seems to care about it.

Shin has only missed one day of training and it was due to him breaking a turnstile when taking the subway.

His most common pose is him pulling on his glove, seen almost every time he enters a scene.

After his team's loss to the Devil Bats, Shin seems to be shown smiling more (after the match against Deimon, when Deimon won the Christmas Bowl and after the successful triple blitz of Clifford D. Louis with Sena and Agon).

Shin is so focused on everything concerning football that during an interview he was asked what kind of girls he liked, he said he liked girls who can take pride on being a part of the team.

Shin seems to suffer from prosopagnosia as he can only identify people by their muscles and movements instead of their faces. He was able to recognize Sena as Eyeshield 21 despite never seeing his face. He also got confused when he got asked about Sakuraba's new haircut and during Deimon Devilbats match against Bando Spiders, when Eyeshield 21 finally revealed his true identity he had no idea he used to wear an eyeshield despite the name.

The most technologically advanced gadget he's been seen holding that was not destroyed is a stopwatch.

Is one of the few people Agon Kongo has respect for and does not call 'trash' because he is a natural genius like him and acknowledges that even he would be blown away by Shin's signature attack, Trident Tackle. Although he did once called Shin a "training geek." He is seen training when his team eats (sometimes sleeping) and caught up to Sena's speed of light pace in 6 months. Additionally he can keep that pace forever like Agon his stamina is ruthless and deadly.

He is often called a 'monster' or 'inhuman' by his opponents because of his implausible strength and speed.

His first name Seijūrō means "born with ten times the spirit" and Shin means advance or progress.

In Devil Bat Investigation Files #95, Shin is one of the characters in the series who can understand Powerful-Go, the powerful language understood only by powerful men.

Miracle Ito produces several football products one of them is a product called Shin's Trident Tackle, which is actually a fork that cost 880 yen.

While commuting to school on the train, Shin clings to the straps and lifts himself up 1 cm above the ground.